r dreaming that a small personal outlay
of money and trouble would be of considerable benefit and advantage to
himself; in the wet weather, with the streets, which are nothing but the
surface soil without any improvement, save the hardening of continual
traffic in the dry season, transformed into a mass of mud and mire, into
which drays sometimes sink to their axles, equestrians to their horse's
knees, and foot passengers, unless well acquainted with their location,
often plunge only to extricate themselves with the loss of a boot; and
with the occasional enclosures in the neighbourhood, of paddocks more or
less covered with trees, interspersed by numerous fallen and rotting
trunks, half burnt logs, and gigantic stumps, the reader has a general
description of bush towns, and (with some slight and insignificant
modifications) of the town of Warwick. They rarely have much industry,
and as little enterprise; while, there being no extensive demand for
artistic or mechanical labour, and no agricultural pursuits, the
inhabitants are generally dependent upon the trade arising from their
intercourse with the squatters.

As we have already informed the reader, it was nearly dark when the
young Fergusons rode into Warwick; and dismounting at the door of the
"Bullock's Head," leaving their horses and packs to the charge of their
black boy Joey, they ensconced themselves in the general apartment of
the hostlery dignified by the name of coffee-room. If the room had few
pretensions to elegance, it had less to cleanliness, and least of all to
comfort; its furniture consisted of a long table, protected by an
oil-cloth cover, on which stood a hand bell, and a jug containing water
of very questionable purity. Around it were arranged a number of solid
cedar chairs, in the manufacture of which the desideratum to be
attained seemed to have been a capacity to withstand the rough usage
they were destined to endure; and they bore unmistakable evidences of
having, at various periods of their existence, taken part in some severe
and desperate conflicts. On the mantelpiece stood some stoneware
representations of maids and swains, who combined a pastoral occupation
with the gratification of a musical talent; while they gazed with a
languishing air on their protrusive neighbour, a portly individual with
a highly-coloured, rubicund, and grinning physiognomy, and scalpless
cranium, from which he invited the lovers of the narcotic weed to
extract a su